Global food production may need to double over the next century to feed a growing world population, writes Tim Radford - just as yields crops in major crop-growing areas fall due to higher temperatures. But there is another way: to build sustainability into our food production and consumption.
… Climate food crunch demands sustainable food system Tim Radford | 27th September 2016 News Food Farming Climate Change Population …
Scientific studies show that as carbon dioxide acidifies the oceans, sharks are less able to detect prey, and their chances of survival are reduced, writes Tim Radford - with serious consequences for ocean ecology.
… in trouble everywhere. They are pursued as food or feared as a threat, and the habitat … interfered with a shark's ability to smell food. She experimented with a shark known as … showed a distinct preference for the smell of food. With more CO 2 , sharks are less able to …
Agricultural pests - viruses, bacteria, fungi, blights, mildews, rusts, beetles, nematodes, flies, mites, spiders and caterpillars - are spreading thanks to trade, travel and global warming, writes Tim Radford. The world faces a dire future of increased crop losses and growing insecurity.
… Farm pests' global advance threatens food security Tim Radford | 2nd September 2014 News Food Farming Climate Change Transport … they will. None of this bodes well for food security in a world of nine billion …
A new GM bacterium can produce bioethanol from coarse switchgrass, rather than using food crops like maize, writes Tim Radford. It does this by 'digesting' the tough cellulose that yeasts are unable to break down.
… June 2014 News Biofuel Farming USA Science Food Climate Change switchgrass-65t-cut.jpg A … from coarse switchgrass, rather than using food crops like maize, writes Tim Radford. It … for vehicle fuel in 2012. But bioethanol from food is unustainable It's advocates represent …
The increase in meat and dairy consumption is set to cause huge increases in greenhouse gases, reports Tim Radford. A shift to less animal-based diets would cut greenhouse gases, conserve forests and grasslands - and make us all healthier, with reduced obesity, diabetes and associated conditions.
… 80% rise Tim Radford | 1st December 2014 News Food Farming Climate Change Health … sugars, refined oils, meat and processed foods led to the incidence of type II diabetes … a total of 550 studies, involving 82 types of food plant and animal products, and from all …
A review of Aaron Bastani, ‘Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto’ published on 11 June 2019 by Verso Books.
… way of using finite resources to produce food". Ideally, we should completely eliminate … The Green Revolutionaries understood “that food is ultimately information” and that “information wants to be free”— ergo, food wants to be free. Their successors are …
The great acceleration - in GDP, population, cities, travel, deforestation, pollution - is on some metrics stuttering. What does this mean for a just transition?
… the gap is widening and this, in the form of food insecurity, has set the stage for famines … fuelling the accumulation process with cheap food, cheap labour, cheap energy, and cheap … the mid-nineteenth century , he notes, real food prices trended downward until they …
As if melting ice in Polar bears' Arctic habitat was not enough, Norwegian scientists have found that organic pollutants such as pesticide residues are disrupting their thyroid and endocrine systems, adding a further threat to the species' survival.
… are concentrated as they move up the food chain making high level predators like … change, loss of habitat and a more precarious food supply . But the threats to the species … of seawater, which they then pass into the food chain when ingested. A second team of …
Increasing acidity in the Southern Ocean is slowing the growth of diatoms, reports Tim Radford. Why worry? Because these tiny plankton sustain essential marine ecosystems, and are highly effective at drawing CO2 down into the deep ocean.
… since tiny, single-celled algae are a primary food source for an entire ocean ecosystem, the … and perhaps less valuable as a primary food source for the creatures that teem in the …
The first in a three-part interview on capitalism and climate breakdown from the podcast Political Economy for the End Times.
… if state capacities were breaking down and food prices soaring at the same time? What … it would be a kind of Malthusian catastrophe: food production insufficient to feed the human … (The rich world would of course buy the food it needs.) But that’s misleading, for …
As Europe and North America warm, bumblebees should be able to fly north to cooler climes, writes Tim Radford. But they're not: the bees' range is receding in the south, but staying put in the north, and scientists fear their shrinking habitat will put many species at risk of extinction.
… pollinate many plants that provide food for humans and wildlife " , says Leif … of bumblebees, we may well face higher food prices, diminished varieties, and other … the message: "Pollinators are vital for food security and our economy, and widespread …
A survey of threatened Arctic mammals highlights melting sea ice as a prime threat to eleven keystone species, writes Tim Radford - meaning that efforts to conserve them may be doomed to failure unless we also tackle the causes of climate change.
… ice" , Dr Laidre says. "They need ice to find food, find mates, reproduce, and rear their … marine productivity, and therefore more food. The scientists provide a set of general …
How should nation states respond to coronavirus and mitigate the crisis of capital?
… - setting up hospitals, distributing food, compensating wages from state funds … need, and ordinary people are setting up food banks and mutual aid networks. The … pervasive economic conflict and social pain. Food, then as now, was destroyed by the ton, …
Scientists have identified climate change as the direct cause of rising mortality among penguin chicks hatched in Argentina, as unseasonal storms hit a once arid coastal region.
… for foraging parents to gather enough food to feed their chicks. "Starving chicks … abnormal sea ice conditions reduce access to food. Antarctic penguins are of course adapted …
To keep the world's coral reefs alive we may have to cool tropical seas by blocking the sun's rays above them, writes Tim Radford. Even if the world reduces carbon emissions, warming already 'in the pipeline' could kill 90% of the world's coral by 2050 unless we act.
… not immediately die, it is deprived of its food supply and weakens, ultimately dying if … on the living coral and its co-dependants for food, tourist income and coastal protection. …
Scientists in the US have established that chemicals used in fracking to extract gas and oil could represent health and environmental hazards, writes Tim Radford. Among the greatest hazards: biocides and corrosion inhibitors.
… used, for instance, in making processed food and even ice-cream. But the precise … industrial side was saying, 'We're just using food additives, basically making ice-cream …
'For the rich, much much less, while for the billions who lack the basics: more good food, better housing, abundant clean water...'
… the billions who lack the basics: more good food, better housing, abundant clean water...' … the billions who lack the basics: more good food, better housing, abundant clean water, …
A review of Andreas Malm's Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency: War Communism in the Twenty-First Century.
… not on ethical or aesthetic grounds, but for food efficiency and forest conservation—thus, … the need to supplement the wartime food supply and grew into a spontaneous vision … “that we should have summary executions, send food detachments into the countryside or …
The first ever global life-cycle assessment of clean energy sources shows that a renewable system could supply the world's entire electricity needs by mid-century, writes Tim Radford.
… require a comprehensive assessment of the food system; and nuclear energy, because they …
The fracking boom has caused massive vegetation loss over North America's rangelands, writes Tim Radford, as 3 million hectares have been occupied by oil and gas infrastructure and 34 billion cubic metres of water have been pumped from semi-arid ecosystems.
… the world - is the basis of all wealth and food security. It underwrites all other human …
As temperatures rise in the Southern Ocean, warmer currents are eroding the Antarctic ice sheet from below, writes Tim Radford - causing the melting rate to treble in two decades to 83 billion tonnes a year.
… plays a vital role in the Antarctic ocean food chain - as they serve as protective …
Scientists are calling for the urgent protection of ecologically valuable roadless areas, writes Tim Radford, as a new global map shows that roads lead to loss of biodiversity and damage to ecosystems by fragmenting habitat and providing access to exploiters.
… and animals that could be the source of new foods and medicines. We must safeguard the …